Future of Guardian cartoonist who drew 'antisemitic' cartoon hangs in the balance

The cartoon was published after Sharp stood down from the BBC last month. Mr Sharp resigned after failing to declare to the BBC appointments committee that he had attempted to introduce a Canadian businessman to the cabinet secretary, and the businessman went on to guarantee an £800,000 loan to the prime minister.

After complaints about the contents of the image, which also included a pig’s head, a depiction of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as a puppet and Johnson sitting on a pile of money, the left-wing newspaper removed the drawing from its website and apologised to the Jewish community and Sharp. Rowson, who works for the paper as a freelancer, also apologised for not taking enough care over the cartoon.

In a statement, he said he knew Sharp was Jewish because they had been at school together.

However, he stressed: “His Jewishness never crossed my mind as I drew him as it’s wholly irrelevant to the story or his actions, and it played no conscious role in how I twisted his features according to the standard cartooning playbook.

"Likewise, the cute squid and the little Rishi were no more than that, a cartoon squid and a short Prime Minister, it never occurring to me that some might see them as puppets of Sharp, this being another notorious antisemitic trope.

“So by any definition, most of all my own, the cartoon was a failure and on many levels; I offended the wrong people.”